Radrizzani paid £45m to buy Leeds United from Cellino

Andrea Radrizzani paid £45m to buy Leeds United from Massimo Cellino, according to accounts published by the club’s former holding company.

Financial figures released by Eleonora Sport Limited (ESL), the firm set up by Cellino to take control of Leeds in 2014, reveal that Radrizzani completed his purchase of the Championship side with separate instalments of £20m and £25m.

Andrea Radrizzani and Massimo Cellino.

Massimo Cellino and Andrea Radrizzani. The first amount, paid in December 2016, secured United’s current chairman an initial 50 per cent stake in Leeds.

Radrizzani then completed a 100 per cent buy-out of Cellino with a £25m payment on May 23, 2017.

The 2016-17 results for ESL, of which Cellino is one of two directors, states that the company made a profit of £3.5m through the sale of the club to Radrizzani.

ESL, meanwhile, is due to be paid a further £8.475m from a ‘third party’ in annual instalments between August 2018 and August 2026. Cellino first became majority shareholder of Leeds in April 2014 after acquiring a 75 per cent stake from Gulf Finance House. GFH accepted a payment of £11m for those shares with Cellino agreeing to take on debts of more than £20m. He subsequently bought all remaining shares in September 2016, three months before Radrizzani made his first investment.

Cellino’s three years in charge of United were a controversial spell in which he fought battles with the Football League and sections of the club’s support, and he called time on his tenure at the end of the 2016-17 season.

The 61-year-old Italian went onto buy Italian Serie B club Brescia, a deal which cost around £100,000 but required Cellino to handle a debt of more than £8m.

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